Australia: The Movie Review

Australia, directed by Baz Luhrmann who’s had success with each of his first three films (Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo + Juliet (1996), and Moulin Rouge! (2001)). This movie tells us a romantic epic of action and adventure, what is happening in Australia in the pre-Second World War. The film tells the story of Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) an English aristocrat, and an Australian larrikin (Hugh Jackman) who joins forces to save the property it inherited in that country. Together we embark on a transformative journey, crossing kilometers and kilometers of one of the most beautiful land and at the same time more inóspitos the world, and end up having to face the bombing of the city of Darwin by Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. When a movie shares the name of a country, it’s not surprising that there is a lot riding on its success. ‘Australia’ is a big-budget epic. Like Gone With the Wind, Australia incorporates real history into its fiction. For decades, mixed-race children were forcibly taken from their families and trained in church and the government sanctioned schools to become servants in white households (see Rabbit-Proof Fence) — and Nullah faces the same dangers. In the movie's chaotic third hour, Darwin (the closest city to Faraway Downs) is attacked by a very movie-ish fleet of Japanese warplanes, just as the real Darwin suffered after Pearl Harbor. But Luhrmann is more self-consciously obsessed with cinematic conventions of big-scale productions — the evident artifices, the quaint re-creations — than about the specific, madly panoramic story he tells.

The movie casting: In May of 2005, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman entered into negotiations to star in an untitled 20th Century Fox project written by director Baz Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Luhrmann directing the film. For her role, Kidman learned to round up cattle. One year later, in May of 2006, due to Crowe's demanding personal script approval before signing onto the project, Luhrmann sought to replace the actor with Heath Ledger. According to Russel Crowe, the actor did not want to work in an environment that was influenced by budgetary needs. About this casting issue, Luhrmann said, "it was hard pinning him down. Every time I was ready, Russell was in something else, and every time he was ready, I would be having another turmoil". The following June, Luhrmann replaced Crowe with actor Hugh Jackman. In January 2007, actors Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, and David Wenham were cast into Australia. In November 2006, Luhrmann began searching for an actor to play an Aboriginal boy of 8–10 years old and by April 2007, 11-year-old Brandon Walters was cast into the role.

The Movie and The Tourism: Tourism Western Australia spent $1 million on a campaign linked with the release of Australia in the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe and South Korea that ties in with an international Tourism Australia plan.

You can read about other Hollywood movie here: Mamma Mia